HL Deb 24 March 1919 vol 33 cc877-80
THE MARQUESS OF CREWE

My Lords, I beg to ask the Lord President a Question of which I have given him private notice. Since he last made a statement in the House on the subject of Egypt public attention has been called to events in that country which seem, from the reports in the Press, to be of a serious character. The rumours which have been prevalent of serious disturbances in that country, even far south, up the Nile, followed by the very rapid return of Sir Edmund Allenby to Egypt after a few days spent in Europe, have not. tended to diminish that anxiety, even in the midst of the many preoccupations at home which have attracted public attention during these last few days. We shall all, therefore, be very grateful if the noble Earl is able to give us any further information.

THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON)

My Lords, the anxiety as to the position in Egypt which has just been expressed by the noble Marquees, and which fairly reflects, I think, that entertained by the community at large. is not unnatural, and I respond readily to the invitation which he has addressed to me to give your Lordships the latest information that the Foreign Office have on the subject.

The news from Egypt is, I am glad to say, rather less anxious. In Cairo there have been demonstrations on a small scale, chiefly by students, and collisions between rioters and patrols, but on the whole Cairo and Alexandria are quiet. In the Provinces, however, violent outbreaks have occurred. In both Lower and Upper Egypt mobs have attacked communications with a system and method that seem to indicate a carefully-prepared organisation, tearing up railway lines and cutting down telegraph poles, and several railway stations have been burnt. Trains are now being run between Cairo and Alexandria and Cairo and the Canal, and the difficulties and. delays are diminishing. Telegraphic communication between Cairo and Tantah has been re-established, but both railway and telegraphic communications with Upper Egypt have been interrupted, the line and station at Wast a and elsewhere being damaged. Postal and telegraphic communications have, however, been assured by the use of aeroplanes and wireless.

Recent manifestations have been predatory rather than political in character, rioters at Tantah, Zagazig, and elsewhere looting European shops. In certain districts the movement has taken the form of peasant tenants rising against landowners. A more serious feature of the situation is that some of the Bedouin tribesmen who live on the edge of the cultivation, especially in the Behera and Fayoum Provinces, have joined in the disturbances. They constitute a lawless element always ready to take advantage of disorders for purposes of plunder. They are comparatively well armed, and a report has been received that they have killed some British officers who were in the Upper Egypt express, returning from leave at Luxor. Full particulars on this head are awaited. Bedouin on the 19th attacked the detachment of British troop in the Fayoum, but were beaten off with loss, and Australian troops in Sharkia were also attacked with similar results. A party of seventy-one passengers from Luxor and Assouan has arrived saftly at Halfa. Peace and order reign in the Sudan, where there is no sympathy with the present agitation.

One gratifying feature of these deplorable occurrences in Egypt has been the behaviour of many of the Egyptian officials and of the Army and Police. These last have behaved especially well. There are growing signs that better instructed native opinion deplores these outbreaks, and that, some of the notables, who owe us so much and have proved our friends in the past, are doing their best to calm the agitation. As your Lordships are already aware, during the absence from Egypt of Sir Reginald Wingate, of whose valuable assistance and advice we are taking full advantage, General Allenby has been appointed Special High Commissioner with supreme civil and military powers, and he will have our full support in the task of restoring law and order. I do not doubt that before long this task will be sucessfully accomplished, although in view of the great length of the railway and telegraph lines which have been damaged in various places some time must elapse before communications are entirely re-established.

I should like to make clear one point on which there would appear to be some misconception. His Majesty's Government have never entertained the slightest disinclination or reluctance to the two Egyptian Ministers, Ruch i Pasha and Adly Pasha, coming to this country. On the contrary, their presence here would be most welcome. I have a high regard for both these statesmen, who have rendered signal service to Egypt and to the Empire during the war. The request to them at the end of last year to postpone their visit for a short period was solely prompted by the consideration that during the initial phases of the Peace Conference sufficient time and attention could not be afforded to discuss the important questions of our future relations with Egypt and Egyptian constitutional reform. I can only repeat that the visit of these or other responsible Egyptian statesmen would have been welcomed, and would now be welcome, and that the discussion with them of the exact form which the British Protectorate is to assume in the future has always been regarded by us as of capital importance.

But as regards Saad Zaghloul Pasha and the persons who have organised the present movement, it is a different matter. They are the self-appointed and irresponsible leaders of an agitation for the avowed purpose of expelling the British from Egypt, and it is this agitation, timed, as it would seem, to coincide with the meeting of the Peace Conference at Paris, which led to the present deplorable outbreak. With its authors and abettors there is no common ground for discussion. Their presence here would have been generally misunderstood in Egypt, where it would have been interpreted as. evidence that we were willing to consider the complete abardenment of our responsibilities for that country. And, further, it would only have served to embarrass and render abortive those discussions with representative and responsible Egyptian opinion to which we looked and still look, as soon as a favourable opportunity presents itself, for the conclusion of a settlement that will be equally satisfactory to Egypt and to the Protecting Power.